Residents split on proposed subdivision traffic-calming
Sonja Drive residents Cecelia Freeman, left, and Kimberlie Parks, center, with son, Tyler, canvassed Stonecrest and Farragut View subdivisions earlier this month, gathering support for the traffic-calming measures.
An investigation by Town of Farragut’s Engineering Department earlier this year included a traffic-calming study, which met seven of eight Town’s metrics and determined speeding to be an issue on both roads.
Further Town consideration, coupled with additional individual requests, has led to a residential vote currently being taken through Town Hall. Residents in both neighborhoods are considering whether to vote for or against installing traffic-calming “speed cushions” on Sonja and Admiral at 12 different locations, mapped out on documents sent along with the ballots earlier this month.
The cushions are described as being made of rubber, approximately 3 inches tall (at the highest point) and are designed “so that vehicles traveling at or near the 25-mph speed limit can drive over without reducing their speed,” the document stated.
Votes will be accepted through June 21. The measure requires at least a 65 percent majority to pass, according to a Town ordinance.
Kimberlie Parks and Cecelia Freeman live along Sonja Drive, and as mothers of school-aged children who attend Farragut schools they have been passionate about getting the measure passed.
“It is a significant safety concern,” Parks said.
“Speeding and traffic have progressively gotten worse in the two years we have been here.”
Parks and Freeman appeared jointly at a Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting earlier this year, asking calming measures be considered. Since the ballots have been mailed out they have gone door to door, and “we only found two against it,” Parks said.
They also set up a Farragut View Facebook page providing related links and information, and have erected signs in their yard — as have other residents on both sides.
David Hamilton, who moved to Sonja Drive from Kingsgate last September, has been lobbying heavily against the move, placing signs in his yard and establishing a Web page, www.farragutview.com.
He said in a phone interview he is not convinced that speeding is a problem on Sonja, but acknowledged it certainly exists in Kingsgate “where people run down Peterson Road at 80 mph.”
“It was the reason I left,” he added. “Compared to Kingsgate, we don’t have a problem.”
Hamilton said the only way to keep people from speeding is “by writing tickets” and said the speed cushions being proposed are “discriminatory and hurtful to people with disabilities.”
On his Web page, he cites several studies and references in support of his claims. The web page also stated: “Speed bumps and other obstacles do not make a person decide to obey the speed limit. Each person is responsible for making the choice to speed ... .”
Recent voting totals on Town of Farragut’s website show a pencil-thin margin: 42 against and 81 for — at 65.9 percent, just .9 percent above the required 65 percent for passage — as of Tuesday, May 28.
Hamilton said if the measure passes, “I will fight on. I have fought these things for 20 years. It will be up to an attorney to argue in court.”
At least one other anonymous resident is also opposed to the traffic calming measures, and authored a single-page 12-point list of reasons to “vote no” which were placed in residential mailboxes. Some of those arguments included a predicted an increase in Stonecrest through-traffic; describing the proposed speed “cushions” as likely causing damage to vehicles unless drivers come to a complete stop while driving over them; and possibly slowing down first responders during emergency situations.
Hamilton said he did not write or distribute the flyer, but said, “I am aware of who that person is.”
Parks said she has been frustrated that the voting is open to residents of both Stonecrest and Farragut View.
“I don’t think people not in our neighborhood should be allowed to vote,” she said. “They aren’t directly impacted like we are.”
